A Homily on Happiness

You may have defects, be anxious and sometimes irritated, but do not forget that your life is the greatest enterprise in the world.

Being happy is not having a sky without storms, nor relationships without disappointments. Being happy is to recognize that it is worthwhile to live, despite all the challenges and times of crises.

Being happy is not inevitable fate but a victory for those who strive towards it. Being happy is to stop being a victim of problems and becoming an actor in history itself. It is not only to cross the deserts outside of ourselves, but even more, to find an oasis in the recesses of our soul. It is to thank God every morning for the miracle of life.

Being happy means allowing the free, happy and simple child inside us to live; having the maturity to say, ‘I was wrong’; having the audacity to say, ‘forgive me’. It is to have sensitivity in expressing ‘I need you;’ to be able to say ‘I love you.’

Thus your life becomes a garden full of opportunities for being happy…

In your springtime may you become a lover of joy. In your winter may you become a friend of wisdom. And if you go wrong along the way, you just start all over again. Thus you will be more passionate about life.

And you will find that happiness is not about having a perfect life but about using tears to water tolerance, losses to refine patience, failures to carve serenity and obstacles to open the windows of intelligence.

Never give up. Never give up on the people you love. Never give up being happy because life is an incredible show, and you are a special human being!
_{Pope Francis}